find a way

on this, the last day of the first marking period, i'd like to offer up a few of the directives i've been given regarding grading (and as a preface, know that i am not a difficult grader, that i plan on passing a lot of my students, and that i give them many opportunities to earn credit other than tests and essays):

1. no student in an honors class is to be given less than a 91% - were these students all actually honors students, and not just kids that were misplaced because their teacher last year took a shine to 'em, this might be possible. the reality is, that even by the grading standard i'm using for kids in my regular classes, i have at least one kid who is failing my honors sophomore english class. fuck the administration on this one. that kid ain't gettin' a 91%
2. no student is to be given below a 50%, and most failing grades should be coded as 55% - what this means, as far as boots on the ground reality, is that a kid who has never shown up for my class gets a 50%, and a kid who i've seen at least once gets a 55%. i am astounded at what constitutes "near failure" for these kids.
   
3. find a a way to pass as many students as possible - i shit you not. i am to "find a way" to pass a kid who has shown up maybe half of the time, not done a single piece of homework, never participated in class (has, in fact, caused more problems than not), and responded to every question on his latest quiz with "i don't care." i am supposed to pass along illiterate kids just so that this school and its administrators can inflate the numbers and put lipstick on a rotting pig.
   

i love the kids, i really do. on most days i even dig this job. however, i will never get used to the soul crushing numbness of a bureaucracy that plays at "serving" the students while criminally underserving them daily.

when they've seen that they can just crawl over the bar for years, what is supposed to motivate them to reach any higher? all answers are welcome.